When I graduated from the Academy of Makeup in Sydney in 2011 as a professional makeup artist, my daily beauty ritual consisted of supermarket wipes and an Olay moisturiser, and never once did I wonder why every brand of wipes in the supermarket irritated my eyes: I assumed I was the problem.

All they had told me about skincare was that "every good makeup artist should have Cetaphil & Lucas Paw Paw Ointment in her kit". When I later learnt how to read and understand ingredient lists, I realised they are actually nothing but toxic sludge with great marketing (petroleum with toxic chemicals/scents) ! 

I scored my first job working for Swedish cosmetics giant Makeup Store in Bondi Junction and Pitt Street store and the “skincare training” I received there basically consisted of them naming one or two ingredients from each product that I should memorise and use in my sales pitch to make it seem like I knew what I was talking about.

They were more than happy to keep me ignorant about what the other ingredients were.

I assume “skincare training” is the same at the other major brands, otherwise I’m sure it would be impossible to sell the products if their staff really knew the truth about what was in them.

But of course, me being me (very curious in nature) I went online and did my own research, finding many inconsistencies to what I'd been told during my “training”.

After relocating to Perth in 2012, I then began working for Bkind Organic Beauty Bar, Australia's leading retail organic beauty store, that stocked a range of the best of the best Australian and International natural and organic makeup and skincare brands. 

What I learnt there was so shocking and enlightening that it literally sent my life in a whole new direction.

I was 25 years young, and for the first time in my life I'd begun noticing fine lines around my eyes: "the first signs of ageing".  I figured there was nothing I could do about it, for not only was I utterly clueless about anti-ageing beauty products, I was also highly skeptical: when I saw anti-ageing skincare advertisements on tv and in magazines that claimed to reduce or prevent wrinkles, I didn’t believe any of it.

To me, all those expensive impressive ads were clearly just clever marketing that profits from women’s insecurities, so I figured I may as well just buy the cheap supermarket brands since the idea of a cream that can reverse ageing just seemed ridiculous.  

But I soon learnt at Bkind that although there is nothing a cream can do to reverse deep lines, when it comes to fine lines, there is still hope, for they are simply a sign of dehydration.

I realised that most of us are very dehydrated and don't even realise it, not just because most of us don't drink enough water, and have a poor diet, but because the vast majority of mainstream skincare is not actually hydrating you!

Within two days of switching from my synthetic supermarket face cream to a quality organic one, all the fine lines around my eyes literally disappeared! I was shocked and utterly delighted: my skin looked and felt incredible. I felt so refreshed that I almost like a whole new person.

I realised that I had just been incredibly dehydrated but never realised because it was all I'd ever known, and so I became the latest organic skincare enthusiast, ready to passionately spread the word to all the other poor dehydrated women out there in the wonderland of cosmetics.

I was lucky to have found a job in beauty where I wasn’t expected to be ignorant or dishonest, but actually genuinely in service to women’s health and beauty.

I didn’t have to sell anything: all I had to do was educate our customers by proudly sharing the truth about the cosmetics industry, and how to read and understand ingredient lists.

After over two and a half years of employment at Bkind, where I received training with dozens of world class brands, tested thousands of products and witnessed countless positive customer skin/beauty transformations (it’s amazing how much more a woman shines when she literally feels comfortable in her own skin)… I’d offically become an organic skincare expert.

Our customers didn’t shop at our store for the image, ego-boost or social status associated with most mainstream luxury brands, they simply experienced undeniable results and understood nature’s science: synthetic molecules don’t nourish our cells!

Often women would realise the importance and logic or natural/organic skincare when they became pregnant and began asking questions for the sake of their unborn baby..

By simply turning their products over and reading the ingredient list on the back (which usually leads to a quick google search since most of the ingredient names are impossible to read), they would then become shocked at what they found and determined to stop poisoning themselves.

Many of our new customers were also cancer patients are were lucky enough to have a doctor awake enough to recommend they remove all chemicals from their life (why not do this anyway?)

And a lot of our new arrivals were women with terrible skin problems. Often they would come into our store with a air of caution, for they had already spent a fortune trying everything recommend by their dermatologist (salesmen for big the pharma cartels) as “gentle”, “hypo-allogenic” or "dermatologically recommended" for sensitive skin, not realising that these terms are virtually meaningless.

Although there are rare women that still reaction to natural products, the vast majority of women with “problematic skin” completely cleared up within a few week to few months of switching to organics.

Transitioning From Synthetic To Natural Cosmetics

For many people transitioning from synthetic to organic, improvements in their skin are immediate. Whilst for others it can take a few weeks, and in some cases rare cases, months. 

For women with oily/combination skin and/or who wear makeup everyday, it is likely your skin could start breaking out after switching to organics - but don't worry: it is only temporary, for once your skin purges out the toxins it will be better than ever. 

This is because mainstream moisturisers and liquid foundations contain mineral oil, a form of petroleum, which is literally a waste product of the oil industry. Putting it on your skin is basically is like putting liquid glad wrap over the skin: it completely seals the skin. On top of that, mainstream mineral powders and foundations contain fillers, which also clog the pores.

Therefore, when you start using organic/natural skincare and makeup which are free from mineral oil and fillers... it means your skin can finally breathe! So it starts detoxing itself. 

Hence many women experience extra break outs and oiliness at the beginning of the transition. So don't freak out and start using your old synthetic stuff again: just give your skin a chance to breathe, detox and regulate itself, because after a few weeks (or months in very rare cases) your skin will look and feel better than ever. 

And seriously: purposely drying your skin out in order to reduce breakouts may seem like an effective way to keep oil under control, but the long term side effects are premature ageing. It's not worth it.

And besides, do you really want to financially support companies who are endangering your health in order to make maximum profit, not to mention, poisoning the environment and torturing animals in experiments?

"Do organic products actually work?"

I would get asked this question all the time by women who were still not completely convinced, and I’d have to hold back my urge to laugh, since the truth is completely to the contrary. Most of the time this question was asked within the anti-ageing context. Now, generally speaking, organics might not have the "instant" results promised by many of these ultra-scientific synthetic chemical based products, but the fact is that much of the time these are just empty promises.

We must put things into perspective: there is only so much a cream can do. We must take care of ourselves on all fronts; we must get enough sleep and rest, say nice things to ourselves, eat nutrient rich food, and keep hydrated!

Although a cream cannot provide drastic immediate results like what we are promised in mainstream advertising, the long term results of using organics are undeniable; many women in their forties and fifties who have been living an organic lifestyle for decades have the same (or sometimes better) quality of skin that some women in their late twenties and thirties have. 

1. CHEMICAL ABSORPTION

Many studies show that roughly 60% of what you put on your skin is absorbed into the bloodstream within 30 seconds.

Many experts agree that absorption through the skin is more dangerous that through the mouth. Substances absorbed into the digestive system go through the kidneys, where enzymes break them down and often detoxify them, whereas substances absorbed through the skin go through no such process.

The average woman uses 12 products per day containing over 168 ingredients , absorbing 2 kg of chemicals per year. 

Many of these chemicals have been scientifically proven to be linked to cancer, endocrine/hormonal disease, thyroid function disruption, learning disabilities, asthma, respiratory disease, skin disease, liver damage, brain damage and development problems, immune system damage, damaged sperm, infertility and birth defects.   

2. MINERAL OIL

Mineral Oil is make from Petroleum and is a by product of the distillation of petroleum into gasoline. It is lightweight, odourless , and being a waste product, it is obviously inexpensive. In fact it it easier for the these companies to use it than it is to get rid of it. 

Johnson’s and Johnsons baby oil is just pure mineral oil. Vaseline (petrolatum) is a sister; it has a waxy structure and so it's not as runny, but still belongs to the same family.

That’s right… we are literally coating our babies in petroleum. 

There are over forty different descriptions of it so it may not say “mineral oil” on the label, other common descriptions are paraffin, liquid petroleum, paraffinum liquidum, petrolatum liquid, petroleum oil, white mineral oil and white oil.

3. THE ILLUSION OF CHOICE

Most of the leading cosmetics brands are also all owned by the same people. For example: Estée Lauder own 29 brands including MAC, Clinique, Bobbi Brown & La Mer.

It is also a myth that the more expensive the brand, the better quality is it

This is totally wrong because sometimes you are paying $200 for a toxic sludge in a nice bottle that cost $2 to make.

“The prices of cosmetics are based not on the value of their ingredients but rather on other factors: packaging, marketing, and the simple fact that cosmetics consumers actually believe ‘more expensive’ means ‘better’. They also believe that certain products or brands -- such as those boasting European provenances --convey higher class. This explains why companies like Estée Lauder own the high-end LaMer as well as Clinique. Both sell skin-care products making the same claims but with extremely different price points." - Paula Begoun

4. FALSE LABELLING

The terms “hypoallerenic, dermatologist recommended etc are virtually meaningless for there are no industry wide legal definitions, and the most popular brands recommended for people with sensitive skin such as “QV” and “Cetaphil” are hyped up toxic sludge.

Cetaphil probably has the best PR of any facial soap. Beauty magazines gush over it as a no-frills $8 must-have. Dermatologists love to recommend it as a mild and non-irritating facial cleanser… 

And yet there’s nothing healthy about this face-washing prescription. The 8 ingredients of Cetaphil are: “Purified water, Cetyl Alcohol, Propylene Glycol, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Stearyl Alcohol, Methylparaben, Propylparaben & Butylparaben.

 When reading ingredient labels, the ingredients are listed in order of quantity. The first ingredient is usually at least 30% of the product. The top third of the ingredients usually take up 90- 95% of the product, the middle third about 5-8% and the bottom third, 1-3%.

There is no panel of experts making this declaration, and in many cases doctors are paid some kind of endorsement to recommend certain products. 

The term “dermatologically tested” creates an illusion in the customers mind that a medical panel of dermatologists somewhere, has investigated the products thoroughly, and perhaps tried it over a period of time before coming to the conclusion of their endorsement.  

However, literally all that may take place or is needed to state this claim, is a single dermatologist tests the product on their own skin or perhaps a patient’ skin, and if they don’t have a reaction, they may endorse the product.

5. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS 

The chemical substances used in makeup and other cosmetics do not break down. They accumulate in the world’s ecosystems, slowly poisoning the planet. 

When these and other chemicals enter Earth’s water cycle, everything and everyone is affected. Chemicals from cosmetics have been found not only in rivers, oceans, and public water supplies, but in agricultural soil and household dust as well. When exposed to these chemicals, livestock can suffer genetic, reproductive, and developmental problems as well as cancer.

6. GREENWASHING

Many brands hide behind clever marketing gimmicks to fool you into thinking the products you're buying are healthier - when they're anything but. For example, they will display the cancer research pink ribbon when their products contain ingredients that have been proven to cause cancer.

7. ANIMAL TESTING

Every year over 100 million animals worldwide, such as birds, cats, dogs, farm animals, fish, mice, monkeys, rats, rabbits, and other domestic/wild animals are burned, crippled, poisoned, and abused in cruel lab experiments– that’s 274,000 a day and 3 every second.

How can this be?  “We do not test on animals” is no guarantee. “Third party testing” is the term used to describe the situation when the company itself may not test on animals, but their parent company does, or they pay an outside organization to test their products/ingredients on animals.

Another loophole that companies use is labeling their products with the term “this finished product was not tested on animals”. But the individual ingredients were.

No experiment is illegal, no matter how cruel, irrelevant to human health, redundant, or painful.

Even when valid alternatives to animals are available, the law doesn’t require that they be used.

Up to 90% of animals used in U.S. labs are not counted in the official statistics of animals tests

Surveys clearly show that the public accepts animal experimentation only because it is believed to be necessary for medical progress, but it is a common misconception that most tests on animals are carried out with the aim of finding a cure for cancer, AIDS, or other devastating human diseases.

But according to statistics, nearly two-thirds of all animal research has little or nothing to do with curing human diseases or advancing human medicine. The reality is that much of this research is little more than curiosity-driven cruelty. 

Even animal research that is carried out for “medical purposes” tends to be irrelevant to human health. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine states “animal testing is wasteful, ineffective, and unrelated to human disease, not to mention unethical.” Many highly regarded schools have stopped animal testing realizing that the tests are just not reliable.

Who funds it? Through taxes, charitable donations, and purchases of lottery tickets and consumer products, members of the public are ultimately the ones who—knowingly or unknowingly—fund animal experimentation. 

Chances are if you have donated to cancer research, you have funded animal research. Same with lottery tickets.

Boss Makeovers got a Boss Makeover and became Wonder Club: still including my original Boss Makeovers, but centred around the over-arching theme: DARE TO WONDER; Be Curious, Be Brave.

During the years that I cocooned myself and learned to reprogrammed and reparent myself, I remembered that when I was eight years old I created a school called “The Club”, where I created lessons for my younger friends. I reconnected with the passions and talents that I had as a child, but went unnoticed and unrecognised.

To honour my inner child, I called my new business, Wonder Club: a lighthearted mystery school and social club that embraces the treasure hunt for truth through the superpower of curiosity.

A school with the kind of questions I wished I had received at school or in my family home. Education that would truly serves people.

I’d found a way to turn all my years of pain, struggle and mental health, into something positive and uplifting.

And my message was this: it’s never too late to transform your life.

I transformed my Boss Beauty Party/Lesson into a 12 part Awakening Beauty Adventure Challenge series to transform you from the inside out.

To unplug and liberate you from the Beauty Myth Matrix.

The great awakening is here, and it’s time for the ancient women’s mysteries to be rebirthed.

It’s time for Princess Aurora to awaken within us all.

Except there is no prince Charming coming to save us: we must rescue ourselves by recognising our own beauty first. By worshipping ourselves even when nobody else does.

By embracing truth as what sets us free.

By daring to ask good questions, and listen with the heart.

Go into that mirror every morning and remind yourself who you are…

That the same force that guides the stars, guides you.

Never separate from god, always supported, always worthy, and loved beyond comprehension.

It is your birthright to see, feel and celebrate your beauty

And share it proudly.

Truth and beauty are intricately linked: to be in your truth is to be in your heart.

And there is nothing more beautiful than one who lives from the heart.

Who brings all of their heart, everywhere they go.

Embrace yourself as a treasure chest of forgotten mysteries and truths.

Let the mysterious excite you.

For the truth is sexy.

And wonder is a portal.

If you forget how to find your beauty, just smile at yourself and notice how your joy lights up your face. Notice how beautiful you are when you are happy.

Doing what lights you up not only makes you look fabulous, it is also how you can find and access your God given gifts, and share them with the world.

Following your joy is your greatest duty.

Life is meant to feel like play.